2 Honored for Getting a Line on Hate Letters

The unusual crime-fighting team of a police detective and a high school dean was commended by city officials Friday for some clever sleuthing that led to the arrest of a student suspected of sending racial hate mail at Grant High School in Van Nuys.

Detective Mel Arnold and Dan Gruenberg received accolades from the Los Angeles Human Relations Commission, which monitors hate crimes and ethnic tensions.

The duo began working together in November when a Grant student and two administrators received threatening letters.

One of the letters addressed to Principal Robert Collins was mostly typed but included a single handwritten line at the bottom of the page.

“Don’t bother to check for fingerprints because I used gloves,” the writing said.

Arnold and Gruenberg took the advice and didn’t bother with fingerprints.

But they did match the handwriting to a student’s homework, which led to the December arrest and indictment of Robert Snyder of Van Nuys.

Snyder, 18, is scheduled to appear in federal court next week and is expected to plead guilty to three counts of mailing threatening communications, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Lee Michaelson.

Snyder’s attorney could not be reached for comment.

If convicted, Snyder faces up to 15 years in prison and $750,000 in fines, Michaelson said.

The case began when Gerald Redmond, the black quarterback of Grant’s football team, received a letter warning him to “Keep your hands off White Girls.” Later, Assistant Principal Joseph Walker, also black, received a hate letter.

So did Collins, a white man who is married to a black woman.

The principal was told that a 10-foot cross would be burned on his lawn and that his family would be harassed “day in and day out.”

“It was quite obvious that all three letters were written by the same person,” Arnold said. “And it seemed apparent that it came out of the school.”

That’s where Gruenberg, a Grant dean of students, came in.

“He is one of those individuals who has a unique sense and feeling for each student on the campus,” said Collins of Gruenberg. “He’s able to get a feel for what youngsters may be involved with.”

Gruenberg knew several students who had often made racist remarks and had drawn swastikas on their notebooks.

The dean pulled schoolwork papers from each student’s file.

A handwriting analyst then allegedly matched Snyder’s writing to the letters, Arnold said.

Police said they obtained a search warrant for Snyder’s residence and found school records listing Redmond’s name and address, two unmailed letters addressed to Collins and a used typewriter ribbon that was marked with words similar to those in the letters.